True Pain
by Just.InStories
Summary: Acro thought that this would be a normal day. It's unfortunate it ended up the way it did. (Spoilers for 2-3)


**(A/N: Happy Valentines Day! Or Late Valentines Dat...I could've published a Justicykes story on Valentines Day, but I feared it would've be cheesy and typical, so I didn't follow through. So, instead, have a story based Turnabout Big Top, a case that's really hated for some reason. Personally, I didn't mind the case. Anyways, if there's any grammatical errors, please alert me, and I'll try to fix them. Thank you and enjoy.)**

 **June 14, 2017 3:05 PM**

 **Berry Big Circus**

 **Lodging House**

Sunlight shines brightly in the room, the sight being blinding and gorgeous at the same time. The room seems barren, save for a few things. The walls are quite plain and a large smudge is present on the floor. In a corner of the room, there also seems to be a birdcage, with quite beautiful birds of green, blue, and red occupying it. However, the most eye-catching point in the room is the green couch against a wall, or more specifically the items cluttering every surface of it. Most items are noticeably shiny and sparkly. Maybe the room's owner has an eye for shiny things? Well...not quite.

While the room is quite plaid, its occupant doesn't complain; its occupant being the man lying on the bed on the room's right side. He has white face paint lining both sides of his face and is wearing some sort of headband. The man's name is Ken Dingling, but he has a stage name, which is "Acro" He is a circus performer, and if you heard his brother's name, then it would be obvious what both of their acts are.

The man appears to be asleep, but eventually the gleaming sunlight disturbs his slumber as he opens his eyes. He looks about for a second or two, before checking his watch.

"Oh, shoot!" yelps Acro. He slides out of his bed, and heads towards the door. "I slept longer than I wanted to...I need to get to practice!" he proclaims to himself.

He rushes out of his bedroom door and starts to dash down the steps of the lodging house. As he's a quarter way down, he runs into someone. It's his brother who is named Sean, his stage name being Bat. His brother bears some similarities to him, but not so similar that you would confuse them as twins. His brother's face bearing a younger look is evidence to that.

"Hey, Acro." greets Sean.

"Oh, hey!" Acro says, returning the greeting. He slows down his pace to walking, but still continues his descend down the stairs. "Wish I could talk right now, but I gotta head to..."

"Practice?" Bat interrupts. "We don't have practice right now, that's not until a few hours from now"

Acro slows down his footsteps to a halt and pauses to look at his brother. He replies to Bat with a quiet "Oh". He then looks down to think. Acro pops his head back up and reminds himself of something that he needs, or rather wants to do.

"Well...morning practice was so exhausting; that I went and took a nap without getting lunch first." Acro explains. "So, I'll be down at the cafeteria, 'k?

Bat responds with a nod and continues to walk up the steps, but is stopped by Arco's sudden complement.

"Nice scarf, by the way."

Bat turns around, looking at Acro confusingly. "Huh?"

"Your scarf..." Acro repeats. "...it's nice. It…" Acro pauses to think for a second. "…fits you. Where'd you get it?"

Finally knowing what his brother is saying, he responds to his question.

"Oh! This? Yeah, Regina gave it to me." he responds.

"Regina, huh?" Acro flashes a look at his brother of suspicion that at the same time is in a silly matter. "Are you sure this is not another one of her pranks?"

Bat looks up, starting to think. It's true that he and Regina pull pranks on each other from time to time. "(However...)" Bat thinks to himself. "(This scarf doesn't seem suspicious, nor has anything happened since I got it…)"

"Nah, I think this was a little something she wanted to give me, y'know?"

Acro chuckles a little at his response, but believes his answer. Acro waves back to his brother, heading down the stairs. "'Kay, see you later!" he shouts. Walking down, he thinks to himself nervously. "(I feel a bit uneasy all of a sudden; but what is it?)"

He finally reaches the bottom floor of the lodging house and heads outside. Slowly, the uneasy feeling wears off of him, but not as fast as Acro wants it to.

 **June 14 5:35 PM**

 **Berry Big Circus**

 **Big Top**

Practice is in effect and everyone is working hard on their…*ahem* "acts". While these acts may have been popular and entertaining back in a 1900's circus, these acts may seem a little outdated now. Even back then, these acts would be booed off the stage, considering how bad most performers were practicing.

In one part of the Big Top, there was a man riding a unicycle, juggling pins. Well, at least a man _trying_ to ride a unicycle and juggle pins.

In another part of the tent, you can see the comedy acts. The first one being a clown wearing blue clothing that has laughing faces plastered on it. He also is wearing a blue cap, with a carrot outstretched in front of it on some kind of line. He holds a paper and a pen in his hands, mumbling to himself.

"Hmm, there were some….vegetables…yeah…" he scribbles on his paper "…talking to each other; and one of them wouldn't stop talking…and…and…and the other one said… 'I don't _carrot_ what you have to say!'"

The man proceeds to burst out laughing at his "joke". However, after about five minutes (and I mean five minutes), his laughter slows down and he coughs a little. He then turns on his pen and writes a note. "Funny, but could use a little more."

Beside the clown is a man wearing a white suit and a giant red bowtie holding a blue –suited wooden puppet. Strangely, the man keeps turning his head every time the puppet is talking. Although, the actions the man was making the puppet do was strange as well, considering it is punching him and talking back. Well, rather the man is making him talk, which he's not doing a very good job of hiding. Because anyone can see from a mile away, that every time he's moving his head he's moving his lips.

The only practice performances that can be considered well done is a man, in purple, flashy and eye-catching clothing flying in the air, with the aid of invisible wires of course. However, only if you looked real closely would you be able to see the wires. At first glance, it would look like the man is actually flying.

The other would be a girl with a lion. The girl, called Regina Berry, is wearing a red torso piece with yellow stripes to go with her all yellow and glistening hair, a tiara wrapped around its front. Her act consists of putting her head inside a lion's mouth. While it may be simple, at least she is doing a very dangerous act correctly.

In the midst of everyone's practice, Acro enters the tent to begin his. Upon entering the tent, a man with balding yellow hair runs up to him; this man being the ringmaster of the circus, Russell Berry.

"Ah! There you are Acro!"

"Hello, Mr. Berry. Sorry that I'm late to practice."

"It's okay; don't concern yourself with it too much. Hurry on to practice now, the next show is in 2 days!

Acro nods and heads over to another part of the tent to practice his act.

 **June 14 7:48 PM**

 **Berry Big Circus**

 **Big Top**

"(Whew! I need a quick break.)" Acro thinks to himself, climbing down a ladder. Reaching the floor, he starts to head for the exit of the tent.

However, as fate would have it, he catches a conversation in the corner of his eye. He turns his head and sees the two people engaging in the conversation, Bat and the Regina girl. Though to anyone else seeing this conversation from afar, the more notable thing would be the giant lion sitting next to the girl. However, Acro pays no mind to it, considering he does know her act.

Before heading out for a break, Acro decides to see what they're conversing about. He walks toward them, their conversation being more heard.

"If I can…..then you'll have to…..movies…" Acro really can't decipher a meaning out of these words, but he'll know what they're talking about once he approaches them.

Before finally approaching them, Regina nods and starts to jump up and down in excitement, and stops to shake Bat's hand. She then grabs the lion's leash and takes him to another part of the Big Top.

"Hey."

"Huh? Oh, hey Ken."

"What were you and Regina talking about?" Acro inquires.

"Oh, nothing much; I just made a bet with Regina. We agreed if I win, she'll go out to the movies with me." Bat replies.

Acro lifts his eyebrows in surprise. He knew that Bat had a crush on Regina for a while now, so it wasn't that which surprised him. What surprised him is he didn't actually think he would make the first move (something Acro been urging him to do for some time now).

In a playful matter, he lightly taps Bat's shoulder. "Hey, nice! I was wondering when you were going to make the first move."

"Heh, yeah." awkwardly laughs Bat.

"What movie are you planning to take her to?" Acro inquires.

"I'm planning to take her to the new movie to our favorite series!" Bat spreads his leg out a bit, and holds his right arm in front of him, and stretches his left to the back, as if he were in some kind of pose."The Steel Samurai!"

Acro chuckles a bit as Bat's response. "Don't you think, since this is a 'romantic date' you should go see some romance movie or something? It'll set up the kiss later a lot better…"

"Stop it…" Bat shouts in response.

"So…" Acro began, trying to think of what else to say. He then realizes that he hasn't asked. "What is the bet by the way?

Bat looks down for a moment, thinking, as if he forgot what it was. He then lifts it back up and gives his answer. "To see if I can put my head inside of Léon's mouth successfully…"

Time stopped moving for Acro. "(P-put his head inside L-Léon?)" All of sudden, the uneasy feeling Acro felt earlier returns, showing no signs of disappearing soon.

You see, because Regina's act involves putting her entire head inside a lion's mouth, the lion has to be trained well. Actually, Regina's mother was the one who trained Léon so she could do the dangerous act like Regina does. However, after her mother suffered a fatal accident (unrelated to Léon) Regina took over her mother's act. Therefore, that leaves her with the responsibility to practice and train Léon.

Now, Acro's mind goes to the question that has started to echo in his head. "(What if Regina hasn't trained Léon well enough?)

Not to mention, there's a chance Bat may accidently do something to anger the beast. "(What if Sean does something, or accidently hurts Léon, causing him to…)"

"Okay, Bat!" Regina calls out. "He's all yours!"

Before walking off, Acro stops Bat from heading towards the lion.

"Hey, bro. I-I don't think this is a good idea."

Bat turns back and looks at him curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…what if something happened…something that angers Léon?" Acro says, stuttering.

The panic in Acro's voice worries Bat for a small bit, but he quickly shrugs it off, trying to assure his brother.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. I mean, I'm just putting my head inside a lion's mouth. What's so hard about that?"

Acro is astonished at the lay-back attitude Bat is taking towards this situation. "Well, what if…"

"Calm down, bro." Bat intervenes. "Regina has trained Léon well; I've seen her during practice. Besides…"

"What's taking so long Bat?" calls out Regina. "You aren't being a chicken are you?" Regina giggles. "Come on, don't worry! It'll be fine."

"Um…coming!" Bat assures her as he turns back to Acro.

"Look, don't worry. Everything will be fine." Bat rushes off towards Regina's direction before Acro has the time to stop him.

Acro stands there flabbergasted at Bat's mood towards this predicament. Behind him, Russell walks up, confused on what is happening at the moment.

"W-what's happening?" Russell inquires, his face confused at the current situation.

"Sean is doing something dangerous, that's what." Acro dashes off to Bat's direction. Berry quickly follows suit, still puzzled.

* * *

A small crowd has formed near Léon is standing, with Regina by his side. She lightly taps his head and the lion opens its mouth. Bat stares inside Léon's mouth, with a state of uneasiness. Acro mixed in with the crowd, trying to make his way through, watches with the same state.

Bat stands in front of the lion as Regina walks away from it. He stands there for a few moments, hesitant. However, finally he shrugs his fear off and walks towards Léon. By this time, Acro has burst to the front of the crowd. He wants to scream to Bat, and try to convince him to stop this madness. However, by this time, Bat is very close to Léon, making Acro afraid that any screaming would surprise the beast.

Everyone watches in anticipation, waiting to see what happens next.

Finally, he does it. From everyone's perspective, especially Acro's, it happens so slowly. However, he does it. Bat sticks his head inside the lion's mouth. Everyone cringes at the sight of this, some even closing their eyes.

A few seconds go by…no screams of pain….

Everyone watches in awe as the trick is successful. Bat successfully put his head inside Léon's mouth. Eventually, the crowd starts to clap as they are in utter shock that the lion didn't attack Bat.

Acro, however, is more surprised. All those thoughts of worry leave his mind, leaving a wide grin on his face. "(T-that's amazing!)" echoes Acro's thoughts. "(Hmph, I guess that shows me to doubt Regina's training.)"Acro watches with a grin, as he sees someone taking a picture of Bat inside Léon's mouth still.

"(I can't believe it)" Acro thinks to himself. "(I mean even Léon is smiling…)"

"(…Wait a minute…lions don't…)"

Then it happens. From everyone else's perspective, it happened so fast. However, from Acro's perspective, it happened so slowly, yet so fast.

Léon's mouth closes, with Bat's head still in it.

The second it happens, the room goes quiet. The clapping and cheer stop, leaving nothing but horrified looks and fear. At the same time both Acro and Regina shout.

"Sean!"

Bat's body goes limp as everyone starts to scream. Russell from the middle of the crowd shouts a command.

"Get the darts! Now! Hurry!"

Three people run out of the Big Top, however only one is running out to fulfill Russell's command.

Acro stands there in utter shock, unable to move. His brother…could be dead! Tears start to well up in his eyes knowing that he potentially lost his brother.

Wait…potentially. "(There may be a chance!)" Acro thinks determinedly. "(A chance he's still alive)"

Acro wipes his tears and then dashes for the lion. However, Acro freezes when Russell suddenly grabs hold of his shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

Acro pushes his hand off as he shouts. "I need to get Sean out of there!"

Acro runs up to the lion, the lion remaining surprisingly calm and un-wild, considering the circumstances. A look of anger bursts through Acro as he grabs hold of Bat's torso, trying to pull him out of the lion's mouth, but with caution, as to not cause any more injury to Bat or any injury to himself. The lion still remains calm, as slowly Acro pulls Bat out of Léon's mouth. However, before Bat's full body is out, Acro manages to snag on a tooth pulling Bat's head out, which angers the lion.

Bat's body drops on the ground with a thud. His head, it's barely recognizable. A simple look and one could tell that he's dead. Acro looks down at his brother's face in complete utter horror. He's speechless. Slowly he puts his hand to Bat's neck, already knowing the results. Surprisingly, however…

"(He…he has a pulse!)"

As soon as that thought finishes, Acro feels the swipe of claws pierce through his back. He falls down, the pain hitting him so suddenly, that he doesn't even have time to scream. The lion lifts up his claw again, preparing to strike again. Acro moves out the way, as Léon's claws swipe the ground. The lion, still angered and fired up, prances towards Acro.

"Damn lion. You haven't had your share of bloodshed yet, have you?"

The lion lifts up its paws in the air; its claws ready to strike Acro again. However, as soon as they come down, Acro manages to grab hold of them in the air, preventing them from striking him.

Unfortunately, Acro is too weak for the lion as the lion pushes, or rather, throws Acro into a wall. Acro bashes into the wall and he falls on the floor, unconscious. The lion makes his way towards him, when suddenly a dart flies into its neck. Léon's movements hinder as he is making his way to Acro. He finally falls onto the floor; dormant.

Russell rushes up to Acro, feeling his pulse. He then cries out another command, this time full of worry.

"Someone! Call an ambulance! Quick!"

A person rushes off to fulfill the ringmaster's command. Now, an even larger crowd is formed. Formed around the horrid scene that has unfolded before them.

* * *

Luckily, an ambulance arrived at the circus before Acro and Bat's injuries worsened. While they were rushed off to the hospital relatively quick, their injuries were still severe.

Acro luckily survived such a heinous attack. However, bashing against the wall damaged the thoracic of his spinal cord, causing paraplegia. In short, due to his attack, his legs were paralyzed. He was going to be limited to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, Acro's condition looks like a blessing compared to Bat's. While Bat miraculously survived the bite, he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. The attack was severe enough to reduce him to a coma, Bat showing no signs of waking up soon. There was a high chance that Bat would be in a coma for the rest of his life. When doctors tell this to Acro in his hospital bed, he is speechless. Words couldn't describe how he felt to know that his brother would be in a comatose state, potentially forever. When the doctors leave the room, he weeps.

* * *

A few days later, Acro is admitted from the hospital. He knew his life back at the circus would be different; not in a good way mind you.

Being wheeled out of the hospital, his mind wanders back to the incident, and what he could've done to prevent it. What if he could've just convinced Bat out of the bet? What if Bat never made the bet in the first place? What if Regina just trained the damn lion better and he wouldn't have gotten into this mess!

"(Speaking of which)" Acro thinks to himself "(Léon smiled before he bit down… But that doesn't make any sense! Lions don't smile!)"

Then it dawned on Acro. (T-that scarf!) He thought back to that afternoon, where he saw Bat heading up the lodging house steps. He was wearing a red scarf. Amidst of thinking about the scarf, he remembers a prank Bat pulled on Regina some time before the incident. He gave her a scarf sprinkled with pepper, reducing her to a sneezing fit. Naturally, people who pull pranks on each other, the victim would get vengeance for that. Therefore, knowing Regina….

"(Lions don't smile…but they do…)"

A fit of anger comes over Acro suddenly; one so great that he balls up his hand and hits it on the arm of the wheelchair.

"Are you okay, sir?" asks the nurse wheeling him out.

Acro looks up at her, and then looks back, shaking his head "Yes."

It was at that moment, hate started to build from within. Hate against Regina, the one responsible for putting his brother in a coma.

"(N-no. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something.)" echoes his thoughts, trying to spell out the hate. "(I just gotta ask her some questions…and hopefully I'm not meant with answers I don't wanna hear.)"

* * *

After Acro was admitted from the hospital, Russell has to make a decision on what to do with Léon. After all, the beast attacked two of his best performers. Therefore, the best decision is to put it out of its misery.

"(However, what about Regina?)" he suddenly thinks to himself. (She'd be heartbroken knowing I had to put her lion down.)"

Russell hesitates on this decision carefully. He doesn't put down Léon, and there's a chance that someone else will get hurt. If he does, however, his little Regina would be devastated.

After thinking through this situation carefully, he comes to a decision. He knows what he has to do.

* * *

 **June 17 7:15 PM**

 **Berry Big Circus**

 **Big Top**

Russell has a leash in hand, Léon's leash. However, something is in his other hand as well, a rifle. What he is going to do with the rifle, well you can fill in the blanks.

Russell knew that this decision would devastate Regina, but on the same token, if Regina hasn't trained the lion well, then there's a chance someone else may get hurt. For Russell, this is the best thing to do in the long-run. However, he hasn't told Regina about this. Maybe, if he keeps her in the dark long enough, he'll be able to replace Léon before Regina notices he's gone. Well, that's the plan anyways.

Russell walks through the Big Top, taking Léon to the back of the circus. To his surprise, the lion is showing no signs of resistance or wildness. It's calm, as it's being led to his death.

Suddenly, a female voice shouts out. "(R-Regina?)" Russell thinks to himself. He turns around, and sure enough Regina runs up to him. He notices that her face is drenched with tears, obvious that she has been crying.

"Please, daddy! Please don't kill him!" she begs.

"Sweetie, sweetie!" says Russell, trying to calm his daughter. "What makes you think I'm trying to kill Léon?"

"B-b-because" she stutters, sniffling at the same time. "I-I ove-overheard that you were going to shoot him b-because of the incident."

"(Blasts!)" he thought annoyingly. "(How did she hear about that?)" He can't escape this lie now. Regina has confronted him, and there was no way out of it.

Unfortunately, he has to tell the truth.

"I-I'm sorry Regina, but what you've heard is true."

Regina looks back in horror, before dropping on the floor crying another waterfall of tears. Russell looks down at his daughter sadly, and removes his hand off Léon's leash to hug her. While her crying doesn't stop, after a few minutes, Russell sits back up, and grabs hold of Léon's leash once more. It was at that point Regina spoke up.

"Wait! P-please don't kill him!" she pleads. "E-everything, it was an accident! Léon would never do something as horrid as that on purpose!"

"If that is true, Regina, then there's a chance that another accident may happen, and someone else may get hurt. Maybe…" he pauses. "Maybe even you…"

"No! Please! Please, daddy!"

"I-I'm sorry Regina." Russell says regrettably, near tears himself. "But, my decision will not change."

She starts crying even more, and Russell tries to think of something to at least cheer her up a little. Although, his thoughts come up empty, and he sighs heavily. He tows Léon away, as Regina continues to weep. He disappears out of the other exit of the Big Top.

Regina continues to bawl her eyes out, unaware of Russell's absence. It's when she hears a gunshot ring out, that she's aware of his absence. It's also at that time, that she realizes it's too late. Through her tears, she looks up at the entrance and scarcely makes out Russell who's standing at the entrance. He has a saddened look on his face, as he simply says.

"I'm sorry."

Regina once again sobs uncontrollably as Russell runs up to hug her once again, in hopes that will make her calm down. However, when that doesn't work, he decides to tell her something to cheer her up. Unfortunately, it is a lie. A lie that is a blessing at this moment, but a curse for the moments following this one.

"You know, you can still see Léon…"

Regina's head lifts up in confusion, and proceeds to ask Russell what exactly what he means by that. He responds with.

"I mean you can still see him, even if he has died. In fact…" Russell pauses at this part. "…you can still see anybody after they have died."

"R-really?" Regina asks in confusion. "How?"

"The…um… stars…(Urk! Was that really the best explanation?)"

"The stars?" Regina asks.

Now that he has blurted it out, there's really no way to wiggle his way out of it. Therefore, he continues with his explanation.

"Yes, the stars. Y'see, every time a person dies; they become a star in the sky. So, you see, when Léon died, he…um… became a star in the sky! So, all you have to do is look up in the night sky, and Léon will be there with you."

Regina's eyes are clearing up, and she sits there thinking to herself. She then speaks back up with a question.

"So, does that mean Mommy became a star to?"

Russell pauses and stutters at the question, obviously caught off guard by the question he should've expected. It takes him a while to respond, but eventually he answers.

"Y-yes, dear, your mother became a star as well. She to, you can see in the night sky."

To Russell's surprise, Regina's tears dry up and he stops sniffling. She's stop crying! The explanation worked! Russell knew that lying to her was wrong, but at the moment it seemed like a good idea. He prays that either she forgets such an asinine lie in the future, or when she gets older, she'll remember what actually happens to people when they die. He hopes for the former outcome, but there were no guarantees that will happen.

Regina suddenly springs up, with a bit more life and joy in her. She then bears a look of realization, as she then declares.

"It's nighttime now, isn't it? I need to go see Léon…and Mommy!"

She springs out of the Big Top with much joy and excitement. After she sprints out, Russell looks down at the ground. "(Let's hope I won't regret telling her that…)"

 **June 19 12:05 AM**

 **Berry Big Circus**

 **Lodging House**

 **Acro's Room**

The same beautiful sunlight shines into the room, the sight not being blinding, however. Acro's room still looks the same, with the exception of the empty birdcage, and the wheelchair, facing a wall. The wheelchair is not empty, however. It's occupied by Acro himself, with birds perched on his person.

He is facing the wall, silent, as his birds hop around or occasionally fly off to fly back on. However, no matter what's happening around him, he doesn't move an inch. A nuclear missile can drop right now, and he'll be oblivious to it.

It's when he hears a door knock that he expresses a reaction. He looks back at the door, thinking that he may have left it open, or someone just came in and knocked to announce their presence. The door was still closed, so Acro faces the wall again stating that the person can come in.

The door opens, and it's Regina. She's holding a platter with food and a glass of water on it. When she comes in, Acro looks behind him to see who it is…and quickly turns it back.

After a couple seconds, he grunts out angrily. "What do you want?"

Regina doesn't acknowledge Acro's anger, and keeps up her chipper mood.

"Hey, Ken! I brought you lunch!"

Acro stays silent.

"Moe made some…burgers…"

No response.

"Your favorite…you know?"

Nothing.

"Well, if you don't want it now, I'll just bring it back later."

Regina heads for the door, and that's when Acro speaks up.

"I'm not going to beat around the bush, alright?"

Regina stops in her tracks, and looks back at him. Acro turns his wheelchair from the wall to face Regina. The birds perched around him fly away and into their cage.

"I'm going to ask you a question, and I want a 100% honest answer. Trust me; I'll know if you're lying."

Regina says nothing, and looks at him, waiting what he's going to say.

"On the day of the incident…" Acro begins. "…I saw Sean wearing a scarf that he's never wore before. He said that you gave it to him on that day."

Acro looks out the window and stays silent for at least a minute.

"Before Léon bit down on Sean's head, there was something I noticed. I noticed that Léon was…smiling."

Regina gets a shocked expression, as if knowing exactly what he's going to ask. She stays silent though, seeing if he is going to inquire what she thinks he's going to ask.

"When I was in the hospital, I pondered that moment. Lions don't smile, yet Léon smiled, as clearly as I see you…as much as I don't want to."

Regina looks down in sorrow and shame, knowing exactly what he meant by that.

"It was when…" he continues. "It was when I was admitted from the hospital, that I finally knew what happened. You see, while lions don't smile…lions can _sneeze_."

Regina looks down in regret, as if knowing what he was going to say next.

"Some time before the incident, Sean gave you a scarf with pepper sprinkled on it, making you have a sneezing fit." Acro suddenly busted into laughter, reminiscing that moment.

"Heh, it was hilarious."

Acro then looks back at Regina with a serious and angry look on his face.

"But, now I ask you…"

She stays silent, anticipating his question.

"On the day of the incident…the scarf you gave Sean…was it sprinkled with pepper?"

Regina was silent, thinking about his words. After a few moments, she answers…

"…...Yes."

Acro looks at her in shock, anger, pain, but most noticeably sadness. He stays silent, knowing that he's looking at the person who single-handily put his brother in a coma. After a few moments, he turns back to the wall and barks to her.

"Get out."

"Huh?" Regina asks.

"Get out!" he barks out again.

Regina tries to calm him down, while apologizing at the same time.

"Ken, I'm sorry! It was an accident, I swear!"

"Saying sorry…" Acro shouts "…won't bring my brother back, you damn murderer!"

Regina looks in shock, but tries to calm him down again.

"But… Sean isn't…"

"He might as well be."

"Well, I mean..." she pauses, slowly going back to her chipper mood "Even if he was dead, you can still see him at night!"

Acro turns his head to look at her in confusion and anger. "What stupid thing are you blathering on about now?"

"You see, when a person dies, they become a star in the sky." Regina says this with much happiness and innocence.

However, Acro's heart was not warmed. "(My brother could die from this coma, and she's mocking him saying that he's going to be a star in the sky?)"

"Where did you hear such an asinine thing?" Acro asks annoyingly.

"From daddy…the night Léon died."

"(Hmph. So old, yet so naïve…)" Acro thinks angrily. "(…and good riddance to that monster as well)" he thinks as angrily.

"So you see, when it turns night, you can still see…"

Acro interrupts the idiotic explanation. "Look, just leave! Now!"

Regina stops and then looks down at her feet shamefully. "D-do you want your lunch?" Regina asks sheepishly.

Acro thinks about it for a second, before answering.

"Just leave it on the bed."

Regina nods and does just that. She heads towards the door, but looks back at Acro sadly before exiting and closing the door.

Acro stares at the wall. He stares at it so hard, that he may even burn holes into the holes he's burning into it. As much as he was angry, he was saddened. Because of her naïve attitude towards everything, his brother is in a coma, and Acro himself is reduced to a wheelchair. He slams his hand on an arm of his wheelchair so hard, that it bends slightly.

Acro looks down at the floor, and notices that a tear falls on the tile. His eyes are filled with tears. He looks up and wipes his eyes, and looks out the window once more.

"One day…" he mutters to himself.

"One day, I'll make you feel true pain."


End file.
